Jugnoo raises $10M in fresh funding

The auto-rickshaw service provider plans to invest the funds in expanding its presence and improve drive efficiency.

Jugnoo, an India-based auto-rickshaw service provider, has secured $10 million (Rs. 66.5 crore) in a fresh round of funding, adding to the $5.5 million it had raised since November last year. The funding was led by mobile payments solution and e-commerce platform Paytm and other existing and new investors.

Other investors in the funding included Snow Leopard Technology Ventures, one of the early investors in the platform, and a new investor Rocketship.vc. Jugnoo, which was launched in India in November 2014 as an auto rickshaw-aggregator, said it is growing at a steady pace on a month-over-month basis.

"We will invest these funds in improving our driver efficiency and increasing our numbers in cities where we are currently in the growing phase," Samar Singla, CEO and co-founder of Jugnoo, said in a statement on Monday, the Mint reported. "And with the kind of impact we have been able to make at the grass-roots, I am sure we have a long way to go."

The on-demand auto-rickshaw provider, which also delivers food and groceries using its wide network of rickshaws, had raised $3 million in the first round of funding in November last year and then raised another $2.5 million in January.

According to TechCrunch, Jugnoo claims to have a registered user base of 2.6 million spread across 30 Indian cities. According to the company, it sees 30,000 riders on a daily basis from a network of more than 10,000 vehicles on its platform, which is up 4,000 auto-rickshaws since January. Besides India, the one-year-old start-up has forayed into global market with its debut in Philippines through a joint venture.

"Their (Jugnoo) auto hailing service has picked up phenomenally well and they are witnessing incredible growth MoM (month-over-month) basis," the Mint quoted Kiran Vasireddy, senior vice-president of Paytm, as saying. "With further infusion of funds, Jugnoo will be equipped to scale up its operations across the country and Paytm is happy to be a part of its growth story."

Jugnoo investor portfolio includes the CEO of Flywheel and co-founder of Junglee, Rakesh Mathur, actor Saumya Tandon, Just Weil, whose is an investor in Facebook and Yandex, and angel investor Vikas Taneja, Kirloskar Brothers and others. The company had also made important acquisitions such as Yelo, a peer-to-peer mobile platform, last year for content discovery and Bistro, a marketing platform for restaurants, VC Circle reported. The company also acquired cab service provider BookMyCab in its early days to take a jab at Uber and Ola in the country.